The ABC’s of Digital Transformation for Retailers like J. Crew

Whether it’s halting all operations like Toys R Us or perpetually closing stores like Sears, many retailers are scrambling, more often than not, to pay back millions of dollars in debt and strategize to see another day. What is required, believe it or not, is a plan that prioritizes customer experience over conversions. When retailers focus more on who a person is, how they want to interact and what they are trying to achieve (at any given time and on any given touchpoint), sales will follow in this experience-driven world.

With debt of its own and declining sales, J. Crew is making bold moves to transform its company into a truly experience-driven retailer, which is pivotal to showing up and succeeding in 2020 and beyond. J. Crew is on the right track in multiple ways, such as hiring a chief experience officer, in former Starbucks executive Adam Brotman, which is one of many signals the company is dedicated to customer experience (CX). Another clue J. Crew is prioritizing CX is the opening up of its Amazon storefront to be where consumers are, starting a brand for younger women and a new line of revenue and offering a lower-price line to attract more price conscious consumers. While only accounting for 2% of J. Crew’s total business, the success of the retailer’s Amazon strategy will come down to how it can convert exposure on Amazon to brand affinity with J. Crew directly. Is it enough?

To get its new strategy right, J. Crew and other retailers will need to focus on the ABC’s of digital transformation to transform, transact and treat people as individuals.

Analytics

Data stored within a retailer’s ecommerce platform, customer relationship management (CRM) solution, and email marketing solutions can be used to improve all aspects of the customer journey. However, most retailers have poor or incomplete data because customer interactions are siloed within a dozen different…